Ranking Best Actor and Best Picture Winners From the 00's

This past decade saw noticeable trends in both of these categories.  The bio-pic was clearly a favored genre in both categories, with Best Actor having more success in winning when nominated.  Despite the apparent popularity of the genre, only one bio-pic (A Beautiful Mind) actually won Oscar's top prize.  Whereas, five of the men that won as lead actor did so for portraying a historical figure.  Best Picture winners were more often given to films in genres the Oscar previously ignored.  This started with Gladiator, only the second sword and sandal epic to win.  This followed with the resurgence of the musical with Chicago's win in 2002 and then again the next year as Return of the King won as the third movie of a fantasy trilogy, not to mention some of the other recent winners.  My preference for the film's and performances follow


Best Picture


9.    Chicago (2002)
8.    Crash (2005)
7.    Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
6.    A Beautiful Mind (2001)
5.   Million Dollar Baby (2004)
4.   Gladiator (2000)
3.   The Departed (2006)
2.   No Country For Old Men (2007)
1.   The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)


Best Actor


9.  Jamie Foxx - Ray (2004)
8.  Denzel Washington - Training Day (2001)
7.  Adrien Brody - The Pianist (2002)
6.  Sean Penn - Milk (2008)
5.  Phillip Seymour Hoffman - Capote (2005)
4.  Russell Crowe - Gladiator (2000)
3.  Forest Whitaker - The Last King of Scotland (2006)
2.  Sean Penn - Mystic River (2003)
1.  Daniel Day-Lewis - There Will Be Blood (2007)

Jack Lemmon - Save the Tiger

The latest in my series of Best Actor Winners

Year: 1973
Actor: Jack Lemmon
Film: Save the Tiger
Director: John Avildsen
Role: Harry Stoner

Other Nominees:

Marlon Brando - Last Tango in Paris
Jack Nicholson - The Last Detail
Al Pacino - Serpico
Robert Redford - The Sting


A few days ago I wrote about Al Pacino's drunken night at the Oscars in 1974, which he lost in the Best Actor category to Jack Lemmon.  Most familiar with his work in Billy Wilder movies, with Walter Matthau and Glengarry Glen Ross, I wasn't sure what to expect with his performance here.  Given the competition that Lemmon beat I was expecting a disappointing performance.  As talented as Lemmon was as an actor I didn't imagine Oscar honoring him twice.  The win seemed to be more of the result of a vote split than anything, from what I understand his win was a bit of surprise (Lemmon's only other notable nomination came from the Golden Globes).  Despite this I approached the film with an open mind and Lemmon's performance proved award worthy.

Lemmon made a great career of imbuing in his characters an awkward sense of likability.  Many of his characters seemed unsure of their place in the world, but none quite take the existential bent Save the Tiger does.  Playing well with Jack Gilford, Lemmon's businessman Harry Stoner is a middle aged man around the age of 50 that is at lost in the modern world of the early 1970's.  Harry is a veteran of War World II who keeps nostalgic about the music and entertainment of his younger days, as demonstrated when he hook sup with a young hitchhiker and they both rattle off names of famous people.  Stone is also a man that looks back at all that he accomplished and wonders if any of it was worth it, he thinks of friends that died in Normandy and throughout Europe and wonders if he's no more alive than they are (a terrific scene occurs when Harry is presenter his business's new clothing line to an audience and all he sees are fallen soldiers.)  Lemmon plays this role so sincerely, without resorting to the sentimental traps that many actors fall into.  It's not much of a stretch to see some of Stoner in Lemmon's later role in Glengarry Glen Ross and for that matter even Grumpy Old Men.  Harry Stoner is a deeply conflicted character and Lemmon never fails to sell that.

Any one of the five nominees could have easily won this Oscar, however Brando had just won and Redford's role didn't carry the necessary dramatic weight that Oscar generally prefers.  That left Pacino and Nicholson fighting it out for the top prize in the opinions of most people, so Lemmon's win came as a surprise.  Nicholson's performance in The Last Detail is regarded as one of his finest and typfied his image at the time as a young outlandish character.  Pacino was also popular at the time for his role in the first Godfather and in his role here as Serpico as a whistle blower cop.  Given the popularity of those two actors in the early 70's, it's easy to see why they were considered the frontrunners.  Given the popularity of Pacino and Nicholson their roles in 1973 have been more highly regarded over the time, that doesn't make Lemmon's superb performance any less worthy.

Other Wins/Nominations:

Best Actor Drama Nomination: Golden Globes

Al Pacino - Scent of a Woman

My latest in my series of Best Actor Winners

Year: 1992
Actor: Al Pacino
Film: Scent of a Woman
Director: Martin Brest
Role: Lt Col. Frank Slade

Other Nominees:
Robert Downey Jr. - Chaplin
Clint Eastwood - Unforgiven
Stephen Rea - The Crying Game
Denzel Washington - Malcolm X



Al Pacino one of the most beloved actor's of the 70's and 90's entered the 90's with out an Oscar to his name.  Other icons of the era Gene Hackman and Jack Nicholson had won their Oscars, while his Godfather co-stars Robert Duvall and Robert DeNiro has as well.  Pacino entered Oscar night nominated for two roles, as a blind lieutenant colonel in Scent of a Woman, and for his superior work in Glengarry Glen Ross.  In recent years his win for Scent of a Woman has been seen as one of the more egregious wins, and despite this not being one of his greatest roles the film has been unfairly maligned.  Yes, Pacino resorted to his now trademark screaming and Hoo-ha!

Yet, despite this somewhat strained performance the character actually works within the context of the movie.  Pacino plays him as more than a simple one-note character and the audience invests in his journey.  At first the character is seen simply as a jackass, but as the story continues he becomes far more understandable.  While some scenes are contrived (tango, car ride, the ending), Pacino gives enough energy into these scenes to buy it within the given context.  Other scenes such as the Thanksgiving dinner work very well with Pacino leading the way.  The Academy could have easily awarded this to Denzel Washington, Stephen Rea or Clint Eastwood (all gave better performances), but considering this is hardly the performance of a hack I can't totally be disappointed.

Other Wins:
Best Actor: Golden Globe Drama

Henry Fonda - On Golden Pond

My latest addition of Best Actor Winners

Year: 1981
Actor: Henry Fonda
Film: On Golden Pond
Director: Mark Rydell
Role: Norman Thayer

Other Nominees:
Warren Beatty - Reds
Burt Lancaster - Atlantic City
Dudley Moore - Arthur
Paul Newman - Absence of Malice

On Golden Pond is most notable for the pairing two of Hollywood's most beloved stars in their final roles.  For Henry Fonda this was his final role, which combined with the fact he had never won an Oscar likely contributed him winning for a rather average performance.  That's not to say Henry Fonda wasn't a great actor, but his performance essentially required him to be an old man.  His co-star Hepburn gave a more nuanced performance (she also won) of an aging woman embracing her silver years.  

Oddly enough Fonda's only other acting nomination came in The Grapes of Wrath, which itself was a fine performance.  However, he was overlooked for one of his best roles in 12 Angry Men.  Fonda's greatest performance in Once Upon a Time in the West has grown in stature over the years, so his snub is a bit more forgivable.  Instead we're left with somewhat of a lackluster win.  On Golden Pond is an average schmaltzy movie, whose appeal was a result of the two legendary leads playing a loving elderly couple.

Other Awards and Nominations:

Best Actor Nomination: BAFTA
Best Actor Drama: Golden Globes
Best Actor: National Board of Review

Paul Newman - The Color of Money

The latest in my addition of Best Actor Winners

Actor: Paul Newman                                
Film: The Color of Money
Director: Martin Scorsese
Year: 1986

Other Nominees:

Dexter Gordon - Round Midnight
Bob Hoskins - Mona Lisa
William Hurt - Children of a Lesser God
James Woods - Salvador


Paul Newman's Oscar for his reprising his role Eddie Felson is often cited as one of the greatest examples of Oscar rewarding a favorite actor for one of his lesser performances.  That's not to say that Paul Newman delivers a less than average performance here, but given his great roles in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Hud, Butch Cassidy, Cool Hand Luke, The Sting, The Verdict and later performances in Nobody's Fool and Road to Perdition leave some people wishing he could've received it for a greater performance.  However, his award here is more than acceptable than other career Oscars such as John Wayne's in True Grit.

Paul Newman certainly knows the Fast Eddie character well and he displays that confidently here.  There isn't much trouble buying that Eddie has ended up where he is, Newman takes it even further and displays the character's doubts and strengths as he takes a young hustler under his tutelage.  Eddie still possesses the same confidence, but also must face the realization that he isn't untouchable as he once might have been.  This type of character obviously wasn't new for Newman, so the performance lacks the range of earlier Newman performances.  Despite the simple nature of the performance it is also a performance that is difficult to dislike, and Oscar saw an appropriate time to honor a Hollywood legend.

Bob Hoskins' performance in Mona Lisa likely posed the greatest threat to Newman's win, but with Newman's star power and the smaller nature of Hoskin's film paved the way for Newman. Notably absent in the field were Jeff Goldblum hampered by the sci-fi and grotesque nature of The Fly and Gary Oldman's breakthrough in Sid and Nancy.

Paul Newman's win is notable for being the only time an actor has won an Oscar for reprising a role in a sequel.  Newman was also the third actor to win in  Martin Scorsese film.

Other Wins:
National Board of Review

Michael Douglas - Wall Street

With Wall Street Michael Douglas established himself as an actor to be reckoned with and Oliver Stone proved that he was one of the premiere filmmaker of the 80's and early 90's.  The same could not be said for Charlie Sheen and Daryl Hannah, both of whom hindered the movie to a considerable degree.  That their peformances, particuarly that of Sheen's don't ruin the movie is a testament to the skill of Stone and Douglas. 

Michael Douglas gives the type of performance that Oscar eats up and its difficult to blame them.  Gordon Gekko is charsimatic, sometimes outlandish and sophisticated, he dominates every scene he inhabits.  Frankly, calling this a lead performance is a bit of stretch, but like Anthony Hopkins and Forest Whitaker in their Oscar winning roles Gekko's is so central to the lead's story, it's hard to think of him as not being the film's lead.  Gekko has gone on to embody the overindulgence of the 1980's (gotta love that big cell phone), and Douglas plays him without any apology.  Gekko really believes there is no other way to live, and lets the audience buy into that as well.  Michael Douglas' performance certainly belongs as one of the lasting moving characters of the 1980's.

Other Awards:
Golden Globe - Drama: Won
Kansas City Film Critics: Won
NBR Best Actor: Won

Daniel Day-Lewis My Left Foot

Prior to My Left Foot, Daniel Day-Lewis had made his mark in several British films, My Beautiful Launderette and A Room With a View, but it wasn't until My Left Foot that Daniel Day-Lewis captured the attention of American audiences as painter/writer Chirsty Brown whom was inflicted with cerebal palsy.  Day-Lewis' performance of Brown certainly conjures images of other actor's portraying characters with handicaps, particularly Dustin Hoffman and Tom Hanks.  However, Day-Lewis never plays Christy for total sympathy, relying on empathy while fleshing out Christy's personal flaws to make the audience care about his story. 

Daniel Day-Lewis rarely works, but when he does he delivers a commanding performance. His performance here as Christy Brown ranks with Robert Duvall in The Apostle and Russell Crowe in The Insider as the best performances of the last 25 years.  Also impressive aside from the physical work that Day-Lewis does he also works well with the rest of the cast, particularly Brenda Fricker playing his mother.  Fricker won for Best Supporting Actress as Brown's supportive caring mother and the two make us believe in their strong relationship.

Up next in my Best Actor countdown - Michael Douglas as Gordon Gekko in Wall Street